1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to operating systems with multi-lingual user interfaces and, more specifically, to a method for monitoring the language used by an operating system to communicate with a user through a display device.
2. Background Art
The use of operating systems capable of interfacing with users in multiple languages increases user efficiency for those engaged in multi-lingual document production and increases the usefulness of operating systems. Some examples of the multi-lingual computer interface art are: U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,748 to Okimoto entitled Documentation System Having Multilingual Function, U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,843 to Bramson entitled Multi-Lingual Input Keyboard and Displal, U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,456 to Garneau entitled Method for Facilitating the sorting of National Language Keys in a Data Processing System, U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,282 to Pick entitled Displayed Keyboard lndicia, U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,682 to Fukunaga entitled Apparatus for Processing Documentary Information, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,603 to Van de Lavoir entitled Global Process Control Information System an Method.
Two examples of multi-lingual operating systems are the Microsoft (r) WINDOWS (r) 3.1 and WINDOWS (r) 95 operating systems. Both include a language input control program in the foreign language versions oftheir operating systems. The language input control program is called the "Input Method Editor" (IME). IME is installed along with a foreign language version of an operating system to set the foreign language as the default language. IME also adjusts the properties of the keyboard to allow the generation of the appropriate characters when the appropriate key is pressed.
For example, the Korean version of WINDOWS (r) 95 operating system uses a bilingual input system supported by IME. This version uses Hangul, the Korean language, as the default language while allowing another language, such as English, to be selected. Once the desired language is selected using the control panel, conversion between languages can be performed by pressing a specific key combination, such as ALT+SHIFT. Furthermore, a button can be displayed on the task bar that represents the currently selected language.
The Korean language button is displayed along with another button icon that indicates the current language being used by the operating system to communicate with a user. The Korean version of the WINDOWS 3.1 and WINDOWS 95 operating systems also include half or full width characters along with the ability to use either Korean or English characters. In addition, the language interface window for the Korean versions can be displayed "on top" of existing windows to maintain visibility even when the task bar is hidden from view. The window is designed to have smaller size than the WINDOWS 95 operating system screen and it is located on the lower right hand side of the screen. The Korean language button and other alternative language buttons are located inside the language interface window. The user can then input characters corresponding to the language selected into the main screen of the WINDOWS 95 operating system. The cursor indicates the insertion point for the characters selected by a user.
The Korean language interface window contains three buttons. The left button represents the current language input mode. By pressing this icon or button a user can toggle back and forth from Korean to English.
I have observed that using the Language interface window as a reminder of which input mode the operating system is using is sometimes difficult. While the language interface window can be referred to when a user forgets which mode the operating system is in, problems arise when one is alternately inputting both Korean and English words. When the user accidentally enters input corresponding to a language that the operating system is not currently using, an error results. To correct the mistake, a user must delete the incorrectly printed characters and re-enter the characters after setting the operating system to translate the keyboard signals into characters of the correct language. This process of correcting erroneously entered characters is tedious and time-consuming I have further observed that one tends to watch the cursor while inputting data rather than look at language input window. This lack of careful attention to the language input window while alternately entering characters from different languages often results in increasing the number of mistakes generated. I expect that a method that allows a user to visually confirm the language input mode of the operating system without needing to look at the language input mode window will decrease the number of mistakes, increase document production efficiency, preventing the interruption of concentration, and increasing typing speed.